


Motivation

by makeitmine



Category: Glee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-02 23:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2829155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makeitmine/pseuds/makeitmine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You think your life will come out the way you want?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Motivation

**Author's Note:**

> Another Klaine Advent fic, for the prompt "twist". This goes with Standing Together, taking place several years in the future, and is more of a monologue than anything. I'm a few days behind on the prompts due to life, so I'm only posting this now.

Hello, I’m Kurt Hummel, and I’ll be auditioning for the role of motivational speaker.

Okay, that’s silly. I used to use that line all the time when I was younger, but things have changed. I haven’t been on an audition in nearly a decade, and I now go by Kurt Anderson-Hummel.

My point is, life is never going to be what you expect. If you had told me I’d be here, touring colleges to give students a glimpse at my experiences, I’d wonder what you were smoking. I never liked teenagers--most of them, at least.

I was born on a sunny late-spring morning, in a small town in Ohio. Growing up I had a pretty normal life. I was the only child of a mechanic and a hairstylist, and even though they struggled at times, they always tried to make sure I had the best they could offer. When I was three years old, my mother introduced me to her favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music. That’s where my name came from--well, that and the fact that my father was named Burt, so they thought it would be cute that we rhymed. Anyway, from the first time I saw Julie Andrews standing on that hill, singing her heart out, I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. No, not join a convent in Austria, but perform. I started attending dance classes, piano lessons, and youth performance groups in order to get my talent down.

You know, when you’re a child you think everything is perfect, and then something happens, and it’s the first time you start questioning life. That happened to me when I was eight. My mother was on her way home from work--she worked late, closing the salon on Wednesday nights. Those were the nights I was allowed to stay up late so I could see her before I went to sleep. When she hadn’t shown up by 11, my dad forced me to go to bed. Half an hour later, the phone call came. A drunk driver who swerved across the center line collided with her car. That was when I started realizing life likes to twist things around on you.

Adolescence for me was painful, for the most part. I knew early on that I wasn’t like the other boys in my class, In seventh grade I was finally able to put a name with my feelings, though it took three years for me to come out. They knew, though. For years I was their favorite target to throw into the dumpster, slam into lockers, or drench with a slushie. There were moments where I wondered if things would improve for me, if I could get out of my town and head to New York unscathed.

Music ended up saving me. My sophomore year, I joined my high school’s show choir when the old, creepy director was fired and they gave the job to a new one. I started making friends, including some of my old tormentors. Because of them, I started feeling comfortable with who I was. I was more confident and more determined, though not necessarily happier. I formed a horrible crush on our star quarterback, and in getting closer to him I hooked our parents up. Yeah, my feelings for him didn’t last, but by the end of the year we were stepbrothers. He was always nicer than the others, especially when my dad suffered a heart attack. Other friends attempted to use their faith to say some words to heal him, even as I asked them not to. Finn didn’t go there; he understood my feelings and reached out in other ways.

One day a friend asked me to spy on our competition--we had a history with one show choir playing pranks and destroying us when it came to performing, so we all wanted to know who we were coming up against. It was a luxurious, private, all-boys school, so I had to play the part as best I could. Things weren’t great for me at the time, as this wasn’t too long after I almost lost my dad and the bullying had picked back up. And life twisted itself again. The boy I stopped that day to ask about their show choir...well, he was the lead singer of the group. You may know him, actually. His name is Blaine Anderson, star of the Broadway show _All Night Long_. He won a Tony for it this past June, and I accompanied him to the award show. Anyway, I stopped Blaine and even though he saw through my disguise, he took me to one of their performances and became one of my best friends. As the bullying reached a horrific height, I was pulled out of school and enrolled in this same private school for a few months. When I returned, Blaine and I were dating, and as the new school year began months later, he joined me.

Everything my senior year of high school was about what you could expect. I ran for class president but lost. Our show choir won Nationals. Life was good, until I didn’t get into NYADA and my best friend, Rachel Berry--oh, did I mention her as well? No?--she did. Blaine encouraged me to still go to New York and make something of my life. I did so, and in the process we broke up. We were teenagers who thought we knew everything about our relationship until the whole long distance thing destroyed us. Life kept going up and down...I made it into NYADA that December, then learned my dad had cancer. I dated someone new, and another friend from high school moved in with Rachel and me, but things weren’t really ‘right’, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. As it turned out, it was because of my breakup. Blaine and I, even with what happened between us, still found our lives revolving around each other. He was my biggest support when it came to my dad, and I knew I loved him and he loved me. We ended up reconciling six months after our breakup, and just days later he proposed to me. I felt on top of the world.

Two weeks later, Finn passed away. It was hard on all of us, especially Rachel, as he was her one true love the way Blaine has been mine. Those first days, weeks, months without him...I wish they didn’t exist. He was only nineteen years old, why him? He had finally figured out his calling, and then he was gone.

Life finally calmed down after that. School went well. Our relationship blossomed, with the occasional bump in the road that we learned to overcome. My dad and stepmom were great. But, of course, life had to twist itself up again. One day, in a workshop in my senior year, a lighting rig fell to the stage, and I couldn’t get away from it in time. I woke up with cracked ribs, broken bones, and a shattered leg. My right leg, once strong and healthy, is now held together by steel. I spent four months in a wheelchair with casts on both legs. I had to learn how to walk again. And worst of all, I had to give up my dream of being on stage, just over a semester before I would have graduated from NYADA. I was a mess for months. Part of me wondered why Blaine or any of my friends put up with me at that time. But I set a goal as soon as I learned my diagnosis: I wanted to be walking by my wedding day that June. Sure enough, I got to walk down the aisle, right to Blaine. That’s by far the best moment of my life.

Things are much better now. Occasionally there will be a day where the pain in my legs flares up and I need to make use of my cane--one that I’ve tailored to fit my style. Blaine and I have been married for seven years and are in the process of adopting our first child. He’s entertaining tourists day in, day out, and I could not be prouder of him. There was a time where I resented the fact that he’s still able to fulfill his dream when I could almost not look at a theatre for a few years. I began attending NYU and earned a degree in Journalism in hopes of getting a fantastic job at Vogue, where I spent my first few months in New York interning. And, as always, my life twisted again. A professor wanted me to come in to speak with a group of foster teens that wanted to make something of their lives. It went well, even though I wasn’t entirely prepared when I walked in. Other groups heard about my recovery, and my speech, and they wanted me to visit with them. This led me right here, in front of your eyes, telling you my story.

I know what you’re thinking; why do I care? I know where I’m going to school, when I’m going to start a family, what my career will be. The truth is, you _don’t_ know that. You could wake up tomorrow and learn you have six months to live. The love of your life could leave you at the altar. You may have fertility problems and not be able to conceive. Life is always going to throw a twist your way, just the way it continuously has for me. Keep your eye on what you want, but remember that if it doesn’t happen? You’ll be okay.


End file.
